‘A long time coming.’ How $12M facility will improve Harris County High School athletics
When it opened 25 years ago, the new Harris County High School had 1,099 students and athletics facilities designed for Class 2A programs.
Enrollment has increased to nearly 1,700, and the school is in Class 5A now, but the school’s facilities for its sports teams to practice hadn’t kept pace with the growth.
Until now.
The Harris County School District is scheduled to cut the ribbon at 4:15 p.m. Sept. 20 on a 60,000-square-foot indoor practice facility for multiple boys and girls sports, comprising:
- 60-yard artificial turf football field, also marked for soccer, baseball and softball
- Four locker rooms (two for boys, two for girls)
- Four offices for coaches
- Weight room
- Athletic training room.
“There can be a batting cage that’s added later,” Justin Finney, HCSD assistant superintendent for business services and technology, told the Ledger-Enquirer. “We don’t currently have that, but fielding practice and those kinds of drills can be held inside.”
The marching band also could use the facility.
The $12 million project is funded mostly by the 1% Education Special Local Option Sales Tax renewed by voters in 2019, plus a 1 mil general obligation bond and savings from the construction of the new Harris County Carver Middle School, which was completed under budget when it opened in January 2022.
“We’re very thankful to the board of education and the citizens of Harris County for helping us make this a reality,” Finney said.
HCHS athletics director Mindy Johnson told the Ledger-Enquirer, “This has been a long, long time coming, A lot of people have been here for a couple of decades and seen the growth.”
Benefits of Harris County’s indoor practice facility
Having an indoor facility enables teams to continue practicing when inclement weather prohibits outdoor activities.
“It’s a safety and security issue as well,” Finney said.
An electricity generator can provide power to the facility from off the grid in case of an outage elsewhere.
The new facility also will be available for HCHS to conduct physical education classes, Johnson said, starting with weight training.
“We’re all on top of each other,” Johnson said of the space crunch in the gym. “A lot of times during some periods, we’ll get in there for half the block, and the other class will get in there the other half. So, with this one, we’ll be able to be in there the whole entire time.”
The new facility’s four offices for coaches will allow each sport to have their own space instead of sharing the five offices in the gym.
“It’s just going to be just something new that we’re proud of,” Johnson said, “and we can’t wait to get in there.”
Southern A&E of Austell, Georgia, is the architect, and J&R Construction of Carrollton, Georgia, is the general contractor.
This story was originally published September 20, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
